HairLabs International

HairLabs International is a distributor and manufacturer with offices in Nashville, Tennessee. Until 2000, they were associated with "transcutaneous" hair removal devices, but no longer offer these products and services.

Below is a 2008 letter with updated information about why HairLabs no longer sells the devices or treatments with them.

Dear Andrea James,

It has been brought to my attention that on your website, “Hair Facts,” you continue to list me and my company, Hairlabs International as distributors of the TransQ-2000 hair removal system. Since you evidently pride yourself on presenting facts, you should be aware that neither I, nor my company has in anyway been associated with any aspect of transcutaneous hair removal in more than eight years.

We were distributors for a company called Rejuvenue for a short time and offered the service in our Nashville clinic, believing it to be a viable alternative to laser hair removal and needle electrolysis. When the clinical results did rise to our level of expectation, we discontinued the therapy as well as our association with the manufacturer.

My background for more than thirty yeas has been in hair restoration; surgical, cosmetic and therapeutic. My focus is now on the distribution of hair management products as well as the distribution of a laser hair therapy devices produced by Lexington International. In January 2007, Lexington received FDA clearance on their HairMax laser comb.

Your negative reference to HairLabs International and me is neither accurate nor appropriate and is also hurtful. When you present the facts, your website performs an important public service. When you continue to link my company’s name to a product or service with which we, (of our own volition), disassociated ourselves nearly a decade ago, you are no longer providing credible or accurate information.

If your website is what it professes to be; a forum for hair “facts” then I am sure you will want to preserve your credibility and delete the inaccurate references to me and my company. The information is not only untrue, but it does not in anyway reflect the mission or character of HairLabs International. Thanks in advance for your immediate attention to this matter.

I was sorry to learn from your website that Mr. Cole had died. I had only met him on two occasions, but he appeared to be a kind man. I’m sure his family and friends will miss him.

Best Personal Regards,
James Britt
Hairlabs International

Historical information

Websites and printed materials promoting a "transcutaneous electrolysis" patch made by American Hair Removal Systems (AHRS) have listed him as an expert. He is also listed as a distributor of the "transcutaneous electrolysis" device made by International Hair Removal Systems (IHRS) and marketed under the name TransQ-2000. IHRS is simply a new name for AHRS. Both companies are operated by the same people.

Treatment with the TransQ-2000 or other IHRS devices should be avoided by all consumers. There is no published data showing these devices can remove hair permanently.

Reputable doctors usually do not associate themselves with these devices.

Contact information:

Address: 1105 16th Avenue South, Suite B, Nashville, TN 37212 Phone: (877) 719-5993 or (615) 320-7984 Fax: (615) 321-0911 website: http://www.hairlabs.com/ email: info@hairlabs.com Contact: "James Britt" jbritt@hairlabs.com
Also listed as: 1105 16th Avenue South, Suite A, Nashville, TN 37212

Devices sold:

• variously written as the TransQ2000, the Trans-Q 2000 or the Trans Q 2000. Sometimes abbreviated as TQ2000 or TQ-2000.
• http://www.hairlabs.com/transq2000/home.html
• TransQ-2000 EPI-CENTER (the device mounted in a plastic stand)
• In cabinet for $7995.00
• Portable case 7495.00

Britt also wrote the article below, which appears in the National hair Journal, on his sales site, and on the IHRS sales site.

Notable quack comments

Scammers helping scammers

This slick site sells all sorts of bogus products like breast enhancement creams, and a "laser hair stimulator" to treat thinning hair. A glowing article written by Britt on the Laser Hair Therapy 3000 appears in the "National Hair Journal," a sales site masquerading as consumer information. This device is made by Harmonix, which also sells a version of the TranQ-2000 under the brand name Pinnacle 1250. Another site selling the SuperPhaser Gold, Branigan’s Hair, also sells this laser light therapy.

I’m limiting my comments to their TransQ-2000 hair removal device.

This site claims to reprint the article appearing in the "National Hair Journal," a sales site masquerading as consumer information. It’s uncredited on the National Hair Journal sales site, but this Transcutaneous article also appears on Britt’s site. According to the IHRS site, it was written by Britt himself.

Illegal claims are in bold.

The Transcutaneous Hair Removal Patch System… even better, below the surface.

( article published in National Hair Journal )

On the surface, a number of hair removal therapies appear to work. It’s when you measure their efficacy below the surface that you begin to separate fact from fiction, fluff from follicle. Essentially, there are two ways in which a hair follicle can be disabled for the purpose of long term or permanent hair removal. One, is with heat (thermolysis) which literally cooks the germative cells disabling the follicle. The other is by provoking a chemical change within the hair follicle (electrolysis) which permanently impairs the ability of the follicle to produce new hair.

Laser, needle and tweezer thermolysis all use heat to destroy the hair follicle. Laser hair removal is currently the most popular of these thermolysis techniques and employs a laser beam to seek out the pigment in the hair follicle and vaporize it and surrounding cell structures. Because the heat is focused at the end of the laser beam, only cells at the base of the follicle in the derma papilla are destroyed. Stem cells which burrow downward from the hair bulge to create a new follicle are often not disabled, allowing the hair to regrow. (see "The Fascinating Fickle Follicle" NHJ Fall Issue) This is why the FDA does not allow laser companies to promote laser hair removal as being permanent.

The Transcutaneous Hair Removal Patch system is based on the scientific principle of electrolysis. Electrolysis is not a machine, not a needle for removing hair, but a clinically controlled physiological process that takes place when galvanic current is introduced into a hair follicle provoking a chemical reaction which converts saline in the follicle into sodium hydroxide. It is this conversion of water and sodium into sodium hydroxide which permanently disables the hair follicle preventing it from regenerating a new hair. In the past, the only way to introduce the current into the hair follicle was with a needle forced into the follicular channel. This method is not without a certain degree of discomfort, some would say…real pain. Needle electrolysis is also extremely labor intensive and tedious, requiring weeks if not months to treat large areas follicle by follicle.

The Transcutaneous Hair Removal Patch system, on the other hand, is non invasive, virtually painless with almost no side effects and allows the technician to treat large areas, such as a man’s back, in less than an hour. Each electrode pad or "patch" is 1.5" x 3.5" and as many as twelve patches can be applied at once permitting treatment of an area 18" x 42. " The patches are applied to the area where unwanted hair is to be removed over a thin layer of gel which is formulated to conduct the galvanic current down into the hair follicle. Once the patches are in place, an electrode is inserted into each patch delivering a mild current to the offending hair follicles and permanently disabling all hairs follicle beneath the patch.

As with all other hair removal therapies, only the hairs in the anagen phase are vulnerable to treatment and thus permanently affected. This necessitates the client or patient returning at predetermined intervals to treat the next crop of hair follicles graduating from the telogen phase to the anagen, or growing phase. Because the Transcutaneous Hair Removal Patch does not attack the pigment in the hair or skin, as do some lasers, it is now possible to safely and permanently remove hair of any color from any type of skin.

The transdermal electrode pads or "patches" are the centerpiece of the Transcutaneous Hair Removal Patch, a uniquely versatile hair removal system which features not one, but three hair removal modalities integrated into the same Class 1, FDA approved, medical device. The unit itself is 10" wide by 20" long by 2" deep with clean medical lines and features two separate channels which are easy to read, adjust and monitor. The two separate channels allow the technician to either work on two areas of the body at the same time, or two patients simultaneously .

Far from being tedious, the system is virtually "hands free." When hair removal of a more sculpted nature is required, as in the case of brows and hairlines, the device offers a transdermal tweezer which permits the technician to "tweeze" single hairs while delivering a mild current through the tweezing instrument which permanently kills the hair follicle. For areas too small to address with the patch and too large to treat with the transdermal tweezer, the same system provides a transdermal, non invasive probe which transmits current, again through a specially formulated gel applied to the surface of the skin allowing the technician to remove unwanted hair from areas like the lip, nipples and under arms.

On the surface and below the surface where if counts, clinical studies indicate that the Transcutaneous Hair Removal Patch system is vastly superior to other methods of hair removal. The fact that the FDA has certified non-invasive transcutaneous electrolysis as being permanent and patient studies reveal the procedure to be virtually painless with few, if any side effects, places this new technology in a class by itself. Add to this the astonishing fact that this equipment can be purchased for less than $7000, a fraction of what laser hair removal equipment costs, and you have not only one of the most exciting cosmetic developments of this century, but one of the greatest cosmetic bargains of the next.

In the waning days of the 20th century, exciting new technologies are emerging on all fronts, ready to take their place at the door to the new millennium. When that door swings open, the newly patented Transcutaneous Hair Removal Patch, is certain to be the most important and most enthusiastically welcomed scientific development ever, in the field of permanent hair removal.

TransQ2000 Press Release

An article in the National Hair Journal trumpets, "in the waning days of the 20th century, new technologies continue to emerge, ready to take their place at the door to the new millennium. When that door swings open, the Transcutaneous Hair Removal Patch will be the most welcomed scientific development ever in the history of hair removal."

HairLabs Inc. of Nashville TN is proud to announce that we have been awarded the exclusive distributorship for the new TransQ-2000, the FDA certified permanent, Transcutaneous Hair Removal Patch system. The TransQ-2000 allows a qualified technician, using the newly patented electrode "patches," to treat unwanted hair on two separate body areas or two clients simultaneously. As many as twelve electrode patches are placed on the skin over the target areas where a specially formulated gel conducts a mild electric current through the patches, down into the hair follicles.

Direct current transmitted into the hair follicle provokes an electro-chemical decomposition of the derma papilla rendering it incapable of generating a new hair. This physiological event is basic electrolysis. 125 years after its discovery, this conversion of salt and water in the hair follicle into caustic, sodium hydroxide is still the only scientific method certified by the FDA, as being able to permanently disable a hair follicle. In clinical trials and in daily application, the TransQ-2000 is proven to trigger this chemical reaction without needles, swelling, scarring, scabbing, pain and the "hit-and-miss" tedium associated with electrolysis.

With this new break-through technology, a trained technician can permanently treat all hair colors and painlessly treat all skin types. Far from being tedious, the therapy can be virtually hands-free allowing the treatment of a man’s entire back in less than an hour

With the dawn of the new millennium breaking, its time to ask yourself, how much of that six Billion dollars in revenue will my business claim and how much will I surrender to a more motivated competitor?

Call now for information on TransQ-2000, available for less than $8,000!

Notable unsubstantiated claims

Even Better Below The Surface
http://www.nationalhairjournal.com/fb.php?read=1&form[id]=10

The new Transcutaneous Hair Removal Patch system is non invasive, virtually painless and has almost no side effects. It allows the technician to treat large areas, such as a man’s back, in less than an hour. Each electrode pad or "patch" is 1.5" x 3.5" and as many as twelve patches can be applied at once, permitting treatment of an area 18" x 42". The patches are applied to the area where unwanted hair is to be removed over a thin layer of gel that is formulated to conduct the galvanic current down into the hair follicle. Once the patches are in place, an electrode is inserted into each patch delivering a current to the offending hair follicles and permanently disabling all hairs follicle beneath the patch. As with all other hair removal therapies, only the hairs in the anagen phase are vulnerable to treatment and thus permanently affected. This necessitates the client or patient returning at predetermined intervals to treat the next crop of hair follicles graduating from the telogen phase to the anagen, or growing phase. Because the Transcutaneous Hair Removal Patch does not attack the pigment in the hair or skin, as do some lasers, it is now possible to safely and permanently remove hair of any color from any type of skin. The transdermal electrode pads or "patches" are the centerpiece of the Transcutaneous Hair Removal Patch, a versatile hair removal system which features not one, but three hair removal modalities integrated into the same Class 1, FDA approved, medical device. The unit itself is 10" wide by 20" long by 2" deep with clean medical lines and features two separate channels that are easy to read, adjust and monitor. The two separate channels allow the technician to either work on two areas of the body at the same time, or two patients simultaneously. Far from being tedious, the system is virtually "hands free." When hair removal of a more sculpted nature is required, as in the case of brows and hairlines, the device offers a transdermal tweezer which permits the technician to "tweeze" single hairs, while delivering a mild current through the tweezing instrument to permanently kill the hair follicle. For areas too small to address with the patch, and too large to treat with the transdermal tweezer, the same system provides a transdermal, non invasive probe which transmits current through a specially formulated gel applied to the surface of the skin, allowing the technician to remove unwanted hair from areas like the lip, nipples and under-arms. On the surface, and below the surface where it counts, clinical studies indicate that the Transcutaneous Hair Removal Patch system is a superior method of hair removal.

The fact that the FDA has certified non-invasive transcutaneous electrolysis as permanent, and patient studies reveal the procedure to be virtually painless with few if any side effects, places this technology in a class by itself. Add to this the fact that this equipment can be purchased for less than $7,000, and you have not only one of the most exciting cosmetic developments of this century, but one of the greatest cosmetic bargains of the next.

NHJthe article

"The National Hair Journal is a publication that informs hair loss professionals about products and services that could help them in their day-to-day business. In this function, it invites outside experts, educators and writers to contribute material and to share their insights. The opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and not those of the publication. The editors of The National Hair Journal requires that all content be objective and non-commercial.

The article containing references to the "Transcutaneous Hair Removal Patch" was written by James Britt and was one of several contributions he made to The National Hair Journal over the years. James is a serious and respected figure in the hair loss community and would not knowingly mislead our readers. However, the article in question is no longer displayed on our website and had any inaccuracies or misleading information been brought to our attention earlier, we would have corrected it right away.

The National Hair Journal has played an important role in sharing information and promoting higher standards in the field of hair loss. We invest time and money in attending medical conferences, regional workshops and educational seminars in order to encourage further education and raise standards. It is disappointing therefore, to find ourselves portrayed as a publication masquerading as a source of independent information when we are in fact working so hard to be just the opposite.

Once again, I leave it to your discretion to learn more about our true goals and objectives and to correct your criticism of us on your website.

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